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Subject:Doubt
Summary:1 is/not prime?
Messages:2
Author:Alex Lau
Date:2008-04-23 11:24:01
Update:2008-04-26 17:23:50
 

  1. Doubt   Reply   Report abuse  
Picture of Alex Lau Alex Lau - 2008-04-23 11:24:01
In fact, 1 is not prime right?

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Picture of Ammon Lauritzen Ammon Lauritzen - 2008-04-26 17:23:50 - In reply to message 1 from Alex Lau
That is correct, the definition of a prime number is that which is cleanly divisible only by one and itself. Imaginary numbers cannot be prime.

The reason one is not prime is because every number has a unique and distinct factorization into primes. In other words, 30 = 2 x 3 x 5. If one were prime, these factorizations would go on forever, 30 = 1^inf x 2 x 3 x 5.